1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a braking force control system in a vehicle including wheel brakes mounted on left and right wheels, respectively, an actuator capable of individually operating the wheel brake for the left wheel and the wheel brake for the right wheel, and an actuator control means capable of controlling the actuator independently from the braking operation conducted by a driver.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order that a traveling vehicle reliably avoids an obstacle ahead of the vehicle, it is necessary to swiftly change the direction of advancement of the vehicle. For this purpose, it is conventionally required to enhance the responsiveness of a power steering device. In addition, there is a proposed technique which produces a restoring yaw moment in the vehicle by providing different braking forces to the left and right wheels when a spinning or a side-slipping is about to be generated near a limit of motion of the vehicle, thereby avoiding the generation of the spinning or the side-slipping.
However, to change the direction of advancement of the vehicle by the steering operation only, there is a limit due to a speed of steering operation conducted by the driver and a cornering force capable of being generated by a tire. The technique which produces yaw moment in the vehicle by providing the braking forces to the left and right wheels is intended to avoid the generation of the spinning or the side-slipping and not to assist the driver's steering operation to quickly change the direction of advancement of the vehicle.